Tras la estela de Teresa de Jesús: Ana de la Ascensión, carmelita descalza en la Piacenza del siglo XVIII

Beginning with the founding of the first settlement of Discalced Carmelites in Genoa (1590), the rapid spread of female monasteries in Italy owes its fortune to a chain of Studia Aurea, 18, 2024: 85-102ISSN 2462-6813 (papel), ISSN 1988-1088 (en línea)https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/studiaaurea.607 86Elisabetta MarchettiStudia Aurea, 18, 2024strong women —mulieres fuertes— who, despite not having known the Mother directly, adhered to Teresa’s charisma and became her witnesses and spokespersons. The Vite of the founders of the first Italian settlements —texts still largely unpublished in the ar-chives of the monasteries— testify how much these barefoot women wrote and how they knew how to create and maintain cohesive communities in which rigor, kindness and reciprocal charity harmonized. This is the case of Anne of the Ascension, founder of the monasteries of Parma (1623), Modena (1652) and Piacenza (1673), cities linked to the life of important families of the 18th century. The manuscript by the Carmelite Father Fulgenzio di San Giuseppe written between 1680 and 1684 and titled Vita della Venerabile Madre Anna dell’Ascensione, Carmelitana Scalza. Fondatrice dei Monasteri del suo Ordine in Parma, Modena e Piacenza Dedicato all’Altezza Serenissima di Maria d’Este Duchessa di Parma a Piacenza, in fact, it allows us to study the life and writings of a “true daughter of Teresa”.